H & R Snaketamer .410

[iceranger792]

I bought a new .410 h & r snaketamer for my 8 yr old daughter. I liked the lil gun so much i decided to take it out for a try. Well let me tell ya 3 birds later i'm extremely unhappy with the gun! All short 10 to 15 yard shots i took at these birds just to watch em fly off to live another day! I tried 4 and 6 shot 11/16 oz 3" so they shoulda taken em down. I had the bead on the birds head when it was sittin still and i've downed dozens of birds with my 20 the same way so its a bit of a mystery to me? All i keep thinkin is if i cant kill a bird with the gun how is my daughter ever going to?

[gspman]

You need to test the gun for point of impact. It's probably off. A .410 is not a gun for kids anyway. It's a gun for experts and even with an expert shooting it the pattern is so thin it'll cause random misses even if you are pointing at your target perfectly.

[Matt Breuer]

I agree with gspman! Let her use a 20. A Snake-Charmer is a great gun to leave in the back of the truck when you're traveling. We've killed a lot of birds with one over the years... Not sure what to tell you on missing birds. Hopefully they were being missed instead of wounded only to die after a short flight...

[mwal]

Pattern it. What choke is it? If it is an open choke the .410 does not have enough pattern density to hit the grouse vitals. As stated before a .410 for hunting flying game is a choice for experts. A 28 or 20 ga would have no problem taking out game birds. I only use my .410 870 for squirrels and rabbits which usually present stationary shots.

Mwal

[cribbageboy]

Would recommend smaller shot for starters. I shoot 7 or 7.5 shot out of mine.

[iceranger792]

3 out of 4 birds got away with this gun. and the 1 i did get was pretty close(10 yds or less). We took it out today and shot some targets. They were definitely inconsistant. the shot looked pretty irratic.

I think the gun is just to short for a .410, it has a 19" barrel with a full choke. But believe it or not i shoot most of my grousse while they're stationary, or running. Yeah its funner to flush em but bb's in the meat is no fun to bite into. I shot 3 last yr in the head with my scoped .22

[bogwalker]

A .410 is for accomplished shooters. I made the same mistake of starting one of my kids with a .410. Pretty frustrating. They can handle a 20 gauge better than you might think.

[Tom7227]

You're starting off with not very many pellets and a poor pattern probably out past 15 feet. Take it out and properly pattern tha gun and I bet you'll see thatit's called a snake tamer because it can kill a snake at 8 feet. Not much of a chance with a grouse and a handgun unless you pot it from about 10 feet with that gun.

[Powerstroke]

Full choke too. You're talking a pattern the size of a baseball at 10-15 yds and a .410 with a single bead means it won't take much to miss.

I use a .410 for plinking and some sporting clays and it is not easy.

[iceranger792]

Shot at a close one today 25 feet or so away and missed! He didnt move, prolly wondering why this guy and his Crued Noisemaker are buggin him?! so i reloaded, Bang! He flapped like crazy, "again" till i got up to him and ended his suffering, again... Well its good gun for shootin at the mailman as he's runnin out the back door, i'd be lucky if a couple bbs caught em in the calf, Ha!

[Ufatz]

The .410, unless in the hands of an experienced and very competent shooter is simply NOT an adequate bird gun.

There! Somebody had to say it. And that particular crude beast of a weapon, which was probably made in a former Russian truck factory, is probably best used as a club or door stop.

[Jim Almquist]

I just had to laugh a bit while reading all the reply's. My first shotgun was a H&R 410 that was built some time before the 1940s and I was able to shot my first duck, Ruffed Grouse and Pheasant with that shotgun. I was 12 at the time and by the time I turned 14 I had saved up enough to go to Target and buy my first Remington 870 12 gauge at a whopping cost of $129.00. Strapped the box to my bike and went home to admire my new toy.

Target and gun laws were a little different back then

[delcecchi]

What kind of birds were you shooting on the ground, "while they were sitting still"?

[iceranger792]

grousse

[laportian]

I shot too many birds sittin still in the brush with a western auto bolt action 410 over the years i couldnt even begin to count. The truth is probably more than a half of the grouse I've popped were in the "sittin completely still hope he cant see me" mode.

[shortfatguy]

Iceranger,

I will give you $50 for it if your that unhappy with it.